


The Inadvertent Eleventh Hour Savior

by CosmoKid



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Awkward Conversations, Heartbreak, Love Confessions, M/M, Pre-Slash, Season/Series 02, The Black Hood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 13:41:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15511101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmoKid/pseuds/CosmoKid
Summary: In which Joaquin returns to Riverdale in search of Kevin and inadvertently saves the day, pending awkward conversations with his ex-boyfriend.





	The Inadvertent Eleventh Hour Savior

**Author's Note:**

> so i was looking through my wip folder and just found this and it was completed. i havent touched it in months and i guess i finished and meant to go back to edit it so i edited it today and im posting it now
> 
> i have no idea which episode this is meant to be after since all of season two like meshes together in my head.

He’s at the town’s edge when it happens. Just standing at the bridge that connects Riverdale with Greendale, looking out over Sweetwater River. He comes out here to think from time to time, to clear his head when things get messy and the confusion and dramatics fog his vision. He doesn’t come here often, but lately, it’s the only place he has a clear memory of being. It’s like he’s always here, skipping stones and listening to the rustle of the trees whether it be mid-morning, the break of dawn, evening, mid-afternoon, twilight or early hours of the morning.

He hasn’t been here this much since his Mom was first drafted and he first started questioning whether he liked girls as much as the rest of the boys in his class did.

It’s pathetic, it really is. His boyfriend, who _he knew_ was a criminal, leaves him and he breaks like this. It really is absolutely pathetic.

But he just can’t help it. He’s broken and he doesn’t know what he can even begin to do to fix that. 

Somewhere in the deepest corners of his mind, he knows that’s not all that’s going on. Joaquin was his first real boyfriend so that has to count for something, right? He doesn’t know if he was really in love, but he was at least close to it. And anyway, the stress of an actual murderer terrorizing the town is enough of an excuse to be stressed. And the guy has his target set on sinners and if you ask some people, Kevin has had a big old target painted on his back since he first came out at age twelve.

Plus, it turns out his Dad is having an affair with Mayor McCoy and Kevin honestly has no idea how to deal with that. He knows his Mom and Dad aren’t in love anymore. He’s not a foolish child. That’s not what’s bothering him. Hell, they’ve barely seen each other in the past five years, but it’s still confusing and scary for him. It just adds to his growing fear of love and losing it.

So instead of doing the normal teenager thing and acting out or gossiping with his friends, he goes to a river to think. It sounds weirder now that he thinks about it, but he doesn’t know what else to do. His Dad has enough on his plate right now even if he’s contributing majorly to Kevin’s breakdown. He can’t go to Betty like he would have before. They’re not as close as they used to be after everything that’s happened. And he and Veronica aren’t really close enough to have this type of conversation. They’re good for exchanging celebrity and school gossip alike and he comes to good use when either of the two girls is investigating, but there’s not much else. He’s not sure who is in their in-crowd anymore, but he knows he’s not part of it. Besides, they’re all at FP’s retirement party and even if they’d remembered to invite him, he wouldn’t have gone. He wasn’t that welcome when he was dating Joaquin considering he’s the son of the sheriff. He’d be turned away as soon as he stepped up to the door now. 

And who does that leave him? Moose? Yeah, no thank you. 

It’s because of the whole drifting apart and quite literally forgetting about Kevin thing that’s led him to this anyway. If his friends had remembered him, he wouldn’t have gone to that godforsaken gay club. Seriously, what kind of name is Innuendo anyway? And if he hadn’t gone to Innuendo, he wouldn’t have been outside of the one place that’s next to the hotel where his Dad is apparently screwing the mayor. And if he hadn’t been able to see that, he wouldn’t have seen his Dad kiss mayor McCoy. And if he hadn’t seen that, he wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

By this situation, he means face to face with the Black Hood and his gun because who can forget that super fun detail in this super fun situation. Although he doubts he’ll forget any detail in this situation considering the murderer terrorizing the town is pointing a gun at him and that is so terrifying that he can’t think clearly. His heart is hammering in his ears and he feels sick.

The first thing that flies out of his mouth is “You’re not one of those people who take Leviticus way too far to justify homophobia, or have I just done something super bad recently that I wasn’t aware of?” and in hindsight, that might not have been the best thing to say to the guy who has a gun pointed at his face.

At least, his last words will be memorable. 

He can’t tear his eyes off of the Black Hood no matter how much he wants to. His eyes are a dark green and his eyebrows are seriously a mess. His skin is a pale white and he looks dead inside. The shadow of his hood makes the skin look even more ghastly. Kevin can’t look away from the man who’s going to murder him. 

All breath leaves his body when the man slowly cocks the gun. This is it. He’s going to die. There is a gun pointed at him and he’s going to die. 

He blinks repeatedly, staring at the man. The Black Hood isn’t even speaking to him. He’s just so intimidating. He’s just right there and he has his gun pointed at Kevin and he’s going to die.

But then he’s not there anymore. Kevin can barely pay attention to anything that happens as he just watches the Black Hood topple over, falling onto the pavement with a crack. He blinks again, looking at the lifeless body of the Black Hood and then at his savior and back again as he slowly realizes who it is.

“Wow, Preppy, you’ve been busy,” Joaquin says and Kevin just stares because _it’s Joaquin_.

“You just… that’s the… you just, you just… the Black Hood, that’s the Black Hood,” he stutters, still flicking his gaze between his ex-boyfriend and a murderer. A murderer who was about to murder him, hence fulfilling his status as a murderer.

Okay, it doesn’t get any less surreal no matter how much he tries to reason it.

“The Black Hood?” Joaquin asks him with a raised brow. He looks like he wants to step forward and approach Kevin, but there’s an unconscious body between them.

This is not a situation he ever thought he’d be in.

“Yeah he uh killed some people,” Kevin says and it’s more blurted out than planned. Joaquin’s eyebrows really raise then and he stares at Kevin like he’s insane and as if he hasn’t helped to dispose of a body before. Oh yeah, his ex-boyfriend has disposed of a body. “Thanks for that.”

“Uh no problem,” Joaquin says and it’s so awkward. It’s just as awkward as it is in those God awful romantic comedies. The romantic comedies that Kevin has been watching religiously since their break up because he’s sad like that.

“We should probably um phone my Dad, you know? Since you just uh knocked out the uh… the Black Hood,” he says and awkwardly scratches the back of this neck because this can’t get any more awkward. It’s just so awkward.

“That might be a uh good idea, yeah,” Joaquin replies, his gaze faltering. He turns his attention to the body that’s lying on the floor and Kevin realizes that it’s so awkward that his ex-boyfriend would rather pay attention to the knocked out body of the Black Hood than him.

The actual phone call itself is even worse and Kevin is grimacing with every word he says to his Dad. All he can visualize is the image of his Dad _kissing_ Mayor McCoy and it makes him shudder at least twice during the phone call. Joaquin is sending him some confused looks that he’s determinedly ignoring as he bites out answers. He lies about his jogging routine again, ignoring the fact that he’s wearing his tightest jeans and a Henley. It’s not exactly jogging attire, but he supposes his Dad seeing Joaquin will just make him think they were going to fuck or something. He comes up with a plausible lie anyway, telling his Dad he was planning to go out but decided to just jog home halfway through the journey. 

He doesn’t think it can get any more awkward after that hellish phone call, but waiting there standing next to his ex-boyfriend next to an unconscious murderer is like going through all of Dante’s Inferno at once. They’re just standing there and Kevin wants to speak, but he doesn’t know what to say. There’s so much he wants to say to Joaquin and there’s so much they need to talk about, but they just stand there in silence. They don’t even look at one another.

“Are you okay, Preppy? You look… a little panicked,” Joaquin says in a quiet, cautious voice and Kevin’s head snaps up to look at his ex-boyfriend. 

“That’s probably due to the fact that a serial killer terrorizing our town just pointed a gun at me not even half an hour after I saw my Dad kiss Mayor McCoy who, funnily enough, is not my Mom,” he bites out, huffing. He regrets saying it immediately, internally cursing himself for making an awkward situation more awkward.

“I don’t really know what to say to that,” Joaquin says after a few more awkward moments of silence.

“Talking never was your strong point, was it? I mean, you could just run away instead,” he says in a harsh tone and as much as he wants to immediately regret it, he doesn’t.

“Okay, yeah, I deserved that one,” Joaquin says and whistles lowly. Kevin just nods, trying not to look that apologetic. He’s meant to be spiteful, but he’s more pathetic than anything. “But if we’re going to have this conversation, not having a body between us might make it a bit easier.”

“I… yeah, I can’t argue with that,” he says and nods. The Black Hood still hasn’t moved and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. He steps around the body, nearly kicking it when his leg jerks randomly. He’s too jumpy. “When did you get back in town?”

It’s an easier question to ask than the obvious one and he’d rather wait a bit before they get into _that_ conversation.

“About twenty minutes ago,” Joaquin tells him and Kevin just stares. He doesn’t know if that makes this whole situation better or worse.

“Oh,” he says in a small voice and looks over at the river again. The obvious direction of the conversation doesn’t sound fun, but he’s not sure if it’s more preferable than awkward silence. He takes a deep breath. “Why are you back?”

Joaquin doesn’t answer for a few moments and it takes every bit of determination left in Kevin to not turn to look at him. He’s still hurt. 

“I,” Joaquin starts before pausing for a few more seconds. Kevin still doesn’t turn his head, but he wants to. He just wants to hug him. “I came back to… make amends, I guess. I don’t know. I just, I did some bad things and I can’t run from it forever. Plus my cousin, Catalina, she uh, well, she got sick of me uh, moping, I guess.”

He stares at Joaquin for a second. He hates that he still feels affection for the guy in front of him after everything even though he knows he should be angry. Taking another deep breath, he tries to look angry or at least cross. “You guess?”

“Yeah,” Joaquin says and huffs, but he sounds resigned almost. Kevin glances at him, unable to stop himself this time. “I should take responsibility, I know. It’s… hard. I have excuse after excuse that I kept building up when I thought about coming back, but at the end of the day, none of that matters. I chose to do what I did.”

“Right. You know that if you apologize to the Blossoms, you’re probably going to end up in jail?” he asks and Joaquin nods and Kevin can see a tint of red on his cheek. He squirms a little.

“I know. I know I can’t do anything really to make amends there, I’ve been thinking about that for a long time and at the end of the day, Jason Blossom was dead by the time I got there. I know I could have reacted better, but I’m not magical, I couldn’t have brought their son back to life,” Joaquin says and Kevin can’t really argue with him there.

“So if you’re not here to apologize to the Blossoms, who are you here to apologi-” he starts to ask, but stops himself as the realization hits him.

Joaquin raises his eyebrows at him in a way that feels almost playful. He bites his lips and tries to distance himself from this all. He doesn’t want to be hurt again.

“I uh, I shouldn’t say this. It’s not fair to you, but I’m selfish and I think Catalina would murder me if I didn’t say at least some of it,” Joaquin starts and Kevin opens his mouth to argue, not sure if he wants to hear what Joaquin has to say but the boy in question holds his hand up to stop him. He shuts his mouth abruptly and tries to calm his nerves. “I, I fell in love with you, Preppy. I shouldn’t have, really. I was not good to you, I lied to you and I did tell FP some of the things you said and I shouldn’t have. I was a bad boyfriend to you and I hate myself for it. I was a bad person, generally, and I can’t sleep at night knowing that I never apologized to you for it all. I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry. I can’t say it enough and I, I understand if you can’t forgive me, but I just need you to know that I’m sorry.”

He stares at Joaquin for a few seconds, not sure what to say. He blinks, his mouth dry. Before he even gets the chance, he hears the siren of his Dad’s car and they both turn to watch the car arrive, disrupting the conversation. He watches his Dad get out of the car almost in a trance, but the ache in his chest weakens a little.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :)
> 
>  
> 
> come scream with me on [tumblr](https://cosmo-k-i-d.tumblr.com/)  
> 


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